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| 1. Can you tell us a little bit about where you are located/live? ( you can include any personal
information you wish to share, such as family life etc. ) |
 Okidok, here we go ;) I was born in the 70’s, in Gothenburg, the second largest city of Sweden. For the moment, I live with my family in a small town just outside Gothenburg.
Originally, I had set my mind up to work as a chef, and also did so for some years. Back in 95, I started to feel that I needed something else and my interest in art finally led me to start my own web design bureau, which I opened in 97 and still run.
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| 2. How did you get interested in starting a web awards program? |
As so many before and after me, I started to feel that I, in some way, wanted to show other webmasters, how much I appreciated their work. Originally, I just sent out a mail to any such site I happened to visit ;)
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| 3. How long has your AP been in operation? |
Well, as said above, I started out with merely “sending e-mail with graphics”, back in 99. But the original date of birth for my “real” AP was back in August 1st of 2000. So we have just celebrated our two
year anniversary and also over 3.000 applicants!
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| 4. What are the benefits to running an AP? |
As a web designer, I would say all the new ideas one comes across! It’s fascinating to see how many different styles there actually
are on the Internet. From a social view, I highly appreciate all the people that I have gotten to know through my AP. Not the least my superb team of judges, Bitten, Luuk, Karen, Helio, Nikola, Andrea and not to forget the wonderful people that have helped me in the past!! It is a very nice hobby for me, a way to make me relax from my work a bit.
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| 5. What are the pitfalls to running an AP? |
Once in a while, one runs into people without any ability to take critique. Even though I haven’t gotten many “evil mails” from disappointed applicants, I promise you that the few I have gotten
aren't a nice read! But, as I live by the motto –“why worry about people you never have, never will and never want to meet”, I usually forget about
those mails as soon as they are read. Don’t get me wrong here, I love to hear
a critique that makes me do better, but mails that just contain hatred and sour grapes, isn’t doing me any good!
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| 6. What gives you the most satisfaction running an awards program? |
At the very top, I must rank all the people that I know for a fact, we have helped with their web sites. Since we decided to give the applicant the ability to follow the judges evaluation, I have gotten many mails, thanking me and the team for our work “on the applicant’s site”. More than one of our winners, has applied before and shown us that our suggestions mattered, when we re-evaluate their site! As a near, second runner up, I put the satisfaction of placing top web sites on our winner’s list and showing them for all the visitors.
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| 7. What is the first thing you look for when you do an evaluation? |
| Sadly, the
better part of our applicants show that our criteria isn’t that interesting to read. Fine with me as long as their site is top notch, but when I find sites that actually break more than four-five points, I really have to wonder “why did they apply?”. As you can tell, the first thing I look at are the possible direct disqualifiers. If I find one, there really is no need for the rest of the team to visit that applicant. We do get quite
a number of applicants and I believe that it’s better to spend more time on the sites that
are actually contenders for the award!
~Top~
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8. Who, if anyone, influenced you the most when you were first beginning
your awards program? |
One person that directly comes to mind, is Jan of Circus World, her award was one of the first I applied for and her personality inspired me to build a friendly award program. In more professional terms, I have always thought that Ellen Wilson, of 3moonscastle and the retired Awardsville, has shown everyone that was interested to read, how one should create an award program that shows credibility!
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| 9. How did this person or AP influence you? |
Jan inspired me to be helpful, I do think that there are quite
a few that would agree! Not to say that Ellen hasn’t been helpful, I actually
think she is one of the more helpful persons involved in the awards community, even if straight forwardness isn’t always appreciated. Even so, the way she influenced me, was by the “Master of Awards” award that she
ran. This award, had in my opinion, one of the best written criterias that I have ever read! Her way of writing inspired me to build the site I have today!
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10. In your opinion, what is the biggest mistake a newly forming awards program
might make? |
| The biggest mistake is to try and do what everyone else is doing. An award program should be an extension of you! If you are into designs, then award good design sites etc. Don’t try to copy an existing AP, no matter how highly thought of it might be! Take your time and think carefully about what you appreciate in a site and what you most certainly don’t appreciate. Write it down, and ask a friend to take a look at what you wrote. Is everything clear? If not, re-write and re-write until nothing can be misunderstood!
I also would like to take this chance to ask new AP owners to think carefully about joining different
organizations! Take your time and read as much as possible, ask questions etc before you sign up! Again, don’t join an association just because everyone else is doing it! If you’re not 100% sure that you agree with the purpose, acts and decisions of an
organization, wait a while and get those questions straightened up!
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| 11. In your opinion, what is the biggest mistake an Award Seeker might make? |
The only mistake I think an award seeker can make, is to misunderstand the purpose of the award they are seeking. If an applicant has a “high tech Flash absolutely only just effects site”, they shouldn’t be applying for an award that rewards site’s with massively impressing content.
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12. What tips can you give to AP Owners who are looking to improve their
program? |
| Make it simple! By that I mean that no one likes to be taken for a fool, and rather then admitting that there is something about your program that they don’t understand, they apply anyway and your point will never go through. Ask some friends to go through your criteria and write down anything that is vague. Then re-write, re-write, re-write until everything is perfectly clear!
I would also like to take this opportunity to ask any AP owner that reads this to get rid of
those “hidden passwords” that have been so popular to include in one’s criteria. There are actually people out there who
don’t have English as main language, reading disabilities and so on. They know that they have created a site that is good, they have taken the time to read your criteria, but maybe they misunderstood that part. Ask yourself, “do I want applicants that
know how to find hidden words or do I want applicants that fulfill my criteria?!”
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| 13. What tips can you give to Award Seekers? |
Thinking of how long an evaluation can take, it’s not too much to ask that you take the time to actually try and read the criteria. Maybe just the courtesy of checking that there isn’t any direct disqualifiers on your site, before you apply. Do not expect any AP owner to be lenient just because you have a great site. If there are any direct disqualifiers, your site won’t get an award, that’s it!
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| 14. Looking back, knowing what you know now, would you do it all over again? |
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Hmm, that’s a tricky question. Anyone who visits my site, can read that there are some associations that I once belonged to that I did in fact resign from. So on this question I must answer, yes, there are some things I could
have done differently, but then again, would my AP be where it is today without these mistakes? I think that I would
have done exactly the same if I could rewrite history!
~Top~
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| 15. What is your fondest memory with regards to your awards program? |
Without naming names, there is one of my winners that applied for the AWA way back. They didn’t win, but the next time they applied, I noticed that they had corrected some errors we found on our first visit. This happened three of four times and the last time they applied, over a year after their first attempt, the site was so perfect that we couldn’t do anything else than award it. I got a very nice mail, thanking me for both all tips they had received as explaining the honour of winning the AWA. This episode has made me realize that I actually can make a difference!
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| 16.
What is your
favorite ocean creature & why? |
This might sound a bit like brown nosing, but I actually like the shark the best. I have seen quite
a few nature shows and one that comes to mind, was about the dinosaurs. Then it came to me, the shark is one of the very few animals that has been perfect since it arrived way, way back, and still is :)
Brown nosing?? Naaahhh!! You are
correct, when you see a shark, it's like seeing a dinosaur... very
little has changed with them since those times. <grin>
Nice to meet another Shark lover!
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~Top~
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